Change of digital blood flow during sodium sulfate bathing was studied using laser Doppler flowmeter. The 10 subjects were divided into two groups; group A and group B. In group A, digital bloood flow was measured in the following order; in the air→plain water→air→sodium sulfate bathing→air, while in group B, in the air→sodium sulfate bathing→air→plain water→air. The temperature of the water was kept at 40°C using thermostat. The 10g of sodium sulfate was dissolved in the 10L of water. In group A, the digital blood flow was 60.2±16.7 in the plain water and 70.6±35.0 in the sodium sulfate water, while in group B, 30.4±12.7 in the sodium sulfate water and 7.36±10.06 in the plain water (P<0.05).
Above results suggest an increase in digital blood flow in the sodium sulfate bathing, although there were great differences by individual and by the order of immersion.

Objective: In drug treatment for pregnant and lactating women, pharmacists need to contribute to adequate drug treatment by collecting much information from various sources.  However, it takes much time to collect information using plural sources.  In this study, we tried to develop a database system which enables expeditiously collecting the domestic and foreign drug use criteria information in order to streamline collecting information for pregnant and lactating women.  In addition, we assessed the utility of the database by comparing the time to collect information using the database to that using each information source and the usability by questionnaires.
Methods: We developed a database system that integrates drug information from the FDA Pregnancy Category, Australian categories for prescribing medicines in pregnancy, “Drugs in Pregnancy & Lactation,” and Japanese package inserts.  For assessment of the usability of the database, we assessed the time required to collect information and subjective evaluation using the five-method questionnaires.
Results: The database significantly reduced the time needed for collecting criteria information and made it possible to compile the information simultaneously from various sources.  The questionnaire survey showed that over 80% of pharmacists and students were satisfied with the database.
Conclusion: It is suggested that our database system is useful to efficiently collect drug use criteria information for pregnant and lactating women.

This retrospective case series enrolled 13 patients who underwent posterior fixation with both transdiscal screws for diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (TSDs) and pedicle screws (PSs) to treat spinal injury accompanied by diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH).

This retrospective case series enrolled 13 patients who underwent posterior fixation with both transdiscal screws for diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (TSDs) and pedicle screws (PSs) to treat spinal injury accompanied by diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis (DISH).

Background: With the marked changes occurring in the medical field, such as rapid population aging, the frequency of one‐dose package use by medication‐dispensing services is increasing.　Pharmaceutical companies promote the development of pharmaceutical products that can be identified based on their color, size, and imprinted information to reduce one‐dose packaging errors and difficulties in tablet identification.　However, there have not been any studies about the effectiveness of such measures for aiding the identification of tablets in the clinical setting.　Therefore, we examined the effects of imprinting on the ease of identification of tablets and capsules.Methods: The study was conducted over a 3‐month period and involved 39 pharmacists aged under 40.　The times they needed to transcribe the characters imprinted on each tablet/capsule were measured.Results: The time needed to identify a tablet was significantly shortened by kana printing (p<0.01), whereas more time was required to identify a capsule when the text color was similar to that of the capsule.　The observed transcription errors included ‘inaccurately transcribing alphanumeric characters' and ‘omitting units or other information.'Discussion: These results suggest that kana printing is effective at increasing the ease of tablet/capsule identification, which is also affected by the color of the printed text.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of fan therapy for the relief of dyspnea in patients with chronic progressive disease. Methods: A systematic electronic database search of all available articles published before October 23, 2019 was conducted using Ichushi-Web of the Japan Medical Abstract Society databases, CENTRAL, EMBASE, and MEDLINE. In addition, a hand-search for updates was performed using PubMed on June 30, 2020 and December 7, 2021. The inclusion criteria were: 1) any RCTs comparing the effect of fan therapy with any other intervention, and 2) patients aged ≥18 years. Exclusion criteria were: 1) duplicate references, and 2) conference presentations. Results: We identified 110 studies, of which 10 met our criteria for inclusion. Finally, five studies were used in the meta-analysis. Fan therapy significantly improved dyspnea in patients with chronic progressive disease compared to control groups with a standardized mean difference of −1.43 (95% confidence interval: −2.70 to −0.17, I2=94%, p<0.0001). Conclusion: Fan therapy was found to be effective in reducing dyspnea in chronic progressive disease.